From the start to finish, the day can be can be loooooong especially when you are confined to your own four walls. If you are in Victoria like me, then I probably don’t need to tell you that appreciating the small things is important in times like these because we know how quickly they can be taken away.
So I decided to come up with a short list of a few little things that give me a spark in my day. I should add than none of this is sponsored. I just wanted to share some things that I am loving right now.
My Coffee ritual - Making my coffee every morning with my breville coffee grinder, breville milk frother and my mocka express stove top coffee pot. Sipping from one of my handmade winter speckle mugs is really just the froth on top! Oh - and speaking of froth, I used to be a flat white gal, but since getting the frother I have discovered a love for the 90’s cappuccino. And if I have the froth, I need the chocolate on top. Because a cappuccino without the chocolate is as disappointing as a lockdown without a playground. *sigh… but, onwards and upwards. So I made a chocolate shaker too! And it’s just the cutest lil thing in my kitchen and I love using it. Maybe a little too much. Oops. Whatever, I don’t care. It’s lockdown. I can do what I want (within the confines of my house).
Hugs - Giving my kids a cuddle before they go to childcare and seeing their cute little smiley faces. I’m not very science, but I hear that endorphins that make you feel good are released when you hug someone. So grab a person, or a cat and have a cuddle. I mentally schedule in a hug with my man person everyday. Even when he’s in the middle of making a PowerPoint or a sandwich. Take that moment and squeeze!
My latest market place purchase - a Roomba. I’m not gonna lie - it’s the best. I maybe preaching to the choir here, but this is a new thing for me and you’re gonna hear about it. As I only work in the studio 3 days a week, I never have enough time to do everything I need to. I’m massively time poor and my house is split over 3 levels. My kids leave all sorts of gum nuts, ‘special’ tan bark, piles of sand and various pocket fluff around the house. So I absolutely love working in the studio downstairs and hearing the robot bump into my furniture upstairs as it vacuums my floors. I feel like I’m really getting stuff done.
It’s dinner time now and the kids and I are at the dining table shoveling food down. Well, I am, because I’m always starving. But my kids push the food around for a while, sit under the table and eat 3 peas for dinner. But one thing that has become fun for us as a family, is lighting the dinner candles. Since I made my new candle stick holders I have been obsessed with dinner candles. I got a few sets from Pinky’s and popped one in my candle stick holder and one in a little pot that Leo made. It’s just the cutest and he loves it that a little pot he made is part of the table center piece.
Making pots with my kids has also been something I have enjoyed doing. I am usually pretty focused when i’m working because I need to utilise all the time I get - even if its 5 minutes. So when a curious 4 year old wanders in to “play” I must admit, I get a little frustrated. And as there are a lot of dangerous materials and sharp tools just laying about, I get very freaked out. As you can probably imagine, it’s hard to focus when my kid picks up a knife and asks if he can stab something with it.
I even did a little photoshoot with the little pots my kids made. Aren’t they just the sweetest? Leo has caught the clay bug and loves to come down to the studio and play n the wheel with me. Is 4 too young to put him to work?
At the end of the day, I’m pretty beat. The kids are in bed and I either pour a cup of chai or a glass of red wine and I always find a nice smelly thing to light. I alternate between one of my Winter Speckle candles or my new oil burner. And burning lavender with a splash of patchouli is the perfect way for me to breathe and unwind from a busy day. I also open some kind of chocolate - usually Kit Kat’s. We’ve been on the KitKat bandwagon for most of CoViD times. I’m not sure how it started, but we usually have a minimum of 3 family KitKats in the fridge at all times. When most people were panic buying toilet paper in 2020, we were panic buying kitkats. It seemed like the most sensible thing to do at the time.
So for me, it’s the little things that keep me going. Sometimes I find it hard to see any light at the end of this long tunnel, but I am trying not to sweat the small stuff too much. If my kids only want to eat peanut butter today, then that is what they’ll eat. If I need to remake that set of planters again for the third time, then that is what I have to do. But God help us all if my coffee grinder breaks or my Roomba stops sucking. Oh yeah, and if childcare closes. Then I’ll lose all my marbles.